A celebration of earthy ingredients & real food

Life in General

I am super excited about today’s recipe I have been waiting to post it for ages! And it just ticks allll of the boxes for a quick, uber tasty and healthy recipe. So hang in there or scroll.

But. First I wanna talk a little bit about TRE.

Firstly, I want to ask any of you out there if you have done TRE, and if so what were your experiences!? : )

And secondly, if you have not heard of TRE, I want to recommend it. Because I did it and it is amazing.

What is TRE?

TRE stands for either Tension Release Exercises, or Trauma Release Exercises. However TRE is not like yoga, or meditation or massage or any of the other relaxation inducing techniques.

It is totally weird and different!

This is what happens during a session of TRE (or what happened to me).

You do some stretches and exercises to warm up and stretch the fight or flight muscles.
Then you lie flat on your back with your legs drawn up feet planted next to each other, soles to the ground.
You are instructed to take big breaths and relax.
After a little while you should feel some twitches in your legs, similar to when one’s legs shake a bit after exercise or while holding the splits or a similar stretch.
The trick is then to allow this trembling to continue. Do not stop it. : ) The trembling might move over the body or increase or decrease.
The practitioner will usually halt the session after about 15 minutes.

My TRE Experience

TRE is something which builds on itself, and it is important they say to do a series of sessions. I am going to break my experience down per week, for those who wonder how the effects change from session to session.

Week 1

I did not know what to expect from the first session I went to. I stalled the trembling process a bit the first time wondering if ‘I was doing it right’. But at some point I realised that the little shakes in my legs where ‘IT’ and I must just let them carry on. The whole thing was very gentle and low key. I was not sure if it would have the deep impact that the people who facilitate it say that it does.

However as soon I sat up – I felt so good! Kind of exhilarated. All through the rest of the afternoon I continued to feel giggly and slightly euphoric. Similar to the feeling you get after a close shave. Which actually makes pretty good sense because TRE releases stored up stress chemicals.

I also felt sleepy at points, and a bit odd on my stomach.

Week 2

The second week / session, was similar to the first, only the tremors seemed to go a lot deeper and started up quicker now that I knew what was going to happen.

After the session and in the days after I got some detox symptoms. In general I eat pretty clean, so it is very rarely that I get detox symptoms – I was super surprised. I had the pleasant feelings again, but they alternated with some mood sensitivity. Similar to a feeling of being thin skinned.

The practitioner told us that the release process will continue after the sessions, and to be gentle to ourselves. So I just rolled with the emotions let it freak me out.

Week 3

In this week I did a two sessions at home. This time there were no detox symptoms, I felt the lightness and happiness, with some minimal emotional sensitivity.

Week 4 – Update!

This morning when I was doing my yoga stretches – my body started to TRE of its own accord! The instructor said that in times of stress we might find our body trembling of its own volition. Things have been a little hectic lately, but I am still amazed that it just started up while I was doing yoga.

Conclusion

That is how far I am into doing TRE – and can’t wait to do more! Its fascinating how such a simple and gentle process can have such noticeable effects on the body and mind. Since starting the sessions, these are the changes that I have noticed which I am 99% sure are thanks to the TRE:

New (and better) reactions to old emotional triggers. For example something which would have irritated me and got me flashing back a tense comment. After the TRE sessions I have been surprised at my own relaxed and positive reactions!

A fading of old emotional issues. This is sort of similar to the previous point, but it’s really making me so happy. I picked up some sexually related trauma in my ‘younger years’, and this is fading!!!!

Great sleep! Wow wow wow, after the TRE I had some of the best sleep of my life! Not that I have a problem sleeping, but usually I need A LOT of sleep to be able to wake up in the morning. With the TRE my sleeping cycle got shorter and deeper. So I had to sleep fewer hours, but got a deeper rest from them. Fantastic!

Stiller meditation. My meditation sessions in the morning have gotten so good! I am still a baby meditator, so I have a lot to learn. After the TRE I experienced an awesome change in the depth of stillness and harmony I was able to achieve.

Better organization and productivity levels. I love being organized, I love getting stuff done – and I enjoy getting through my work. I try my best to be organized on most levels, and but since TRE, it’s almost as if I don’t even have to try. My head is so clear, everything organizes itself almost! Because of the clear headedness – I am getting loads of stuff done : D. So awesome! Do you know what this means……… Stacks of weird and wonderful recipes coming your way!

If you have any questions or comments from your own experience – please don’t hesitate. I am dieing to talk to someone about TRE! As you can probably see from this post…. : )

Ok OK. RECIPE. : D

This Cheesy Chili & Lentil Shakshuka

I absolutely love this recipe. It is the perfect recipe to keep up your sleeve for:

A cold night where you want a quick and hearty protein filled meal.

A morning pre quelling a long physical day.

A lunch at home which needs to make up for a small breakfast, or make up for a rushed supper later on.

But first: What is a Shakshuka?

I love this name. Shakshuka. It sounds all exotic and wonderful. Funnily the actual dish is super simple.

The basis of a shakshuka is eggs poached in a sauce of tomato, chillies, onions and other optional ingredients. Shakshukas are often thought of as a breakfast food, but really can be eaten for any meal. I usually make mine for supper when the pantry is low and I do not have heaps of energy for cooking.

The shakshuka originated in Northern Africa where it was typically an Arabian dish of meat and vegetables. At some point the shakshuka made its way to Israel, where it changed shape and took on the more European ingredients of tomato, onions, eggs and often sweet peppers. Nowadays people are making shakshukas with whatever they fancy, such as baked beans, black beans etc.

For this shakshuka recipe I used lentils. I also added in some cheese for extra heartiness.

Shakshukas are the kind of dish which you can add in almost anything. So feel free to incorporate extra veggies. If you have any ideas for extra ingredients – give me a shout in the comments and I will try and say if it might be a good addition and when to incorporate it : ).

Basics of How to Make a Shakshuka

Their are loads of recipes out there to make all kinds of scrumptious shakshukas – but this is the basic process.

Dice your ingredients. Heat a pan and gently fry any onion, garlic, other veg or chilis. Add in the fresh or canned tomatoes. Simmer gently. Crack in desired amount of eggs. simmer gently until eggs are the desired ‘cookedness’

What to Have with Shakshukas

Before I leave you with the recipe, one last thing.

Bread

Crusty bread is makes a GREAT side for a shakshuka. You can use hunks of it to soak up the extra sauciness! Serving bread up can also stretch the dish if you have extra visitors or an unexpectedly hungry family member.

Salad

If on the other hand you want something fresh and light to balance out the filling power of a shakshuka – a green salad can go well as a side too.

Ingredients

2 cans tomatoes (whole or chopped) (You can also use fresh tomatoes combined with a couple tablespoons tomato paste)

3 cups of cooked lentils

Salt & pepper to taste

4-5 eggs

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Instructions

Heat olive oil in a deep skillet.

Add chopped onion and fry gently until the onion starts to soften.

Add the chopped peppers, chilli and spices, simmering for about 30 seconds.

Add in the tomato, salt and pepper and lentils and simmer for about 3-5 minutes. If the lentils are slightly overcooked – rather add them after simmering the tomato – and do it just before you add the eggs.

Now crack the eggs gently onto the top. I like to create slight depressions with my cooking spoon first, to drop the eggs into. This way they really cook in the tomato and sauce – not just on top of it

We made it home safely! In fact we have been home for quite some time. And talking about Namibia in the the Best Less Sugar Carrot Cake Recipe seemed just two too wildly different topics to put in one post.

We had a great journey, with a few adventures (one tight spot where I thought Nick was going to be mugged!), but also lots of relaxation. It took us about a week to make our way up into Namibia and to Swakopmund where my grandmother lives. We stayed with her for two whole weeks. We toured, all got the flu, and recovered copying all the old home videos onto DVD.

From there we took a horrific gravel road down to the diamond town of Luderitz. In Luderitz we visited my childhood best friend and his folks – and it was like seeing a second family. We had planned to stay two nights and ended up staying for a almost a week!

We then had to hot foot it home through Namibia, across the border and back down the the southern coast of South Africa. It was a crazy long journey and we did it in two days!!! Which had a lot to do with Nick’s license expiring.

We made it home at 5 minutes to midnight before his expiry date. Talk about perfect timing… or cutting it close : P.

But enough words, a picture speaks a thousand words – but mine might not because lets just say that I am worse at wild life photography than at food photography. But here are some of the characters we saw along the way:

Our spilled Marmite Rusks being eaten by the local wildlife in the Kalaghadi Park!

Going away on a journey does amazing things for one’s mind! If you are ever travelling to Namibia (or South Africa!) give me a shout and I’ll try answer any questions you might have.

And for now – back to the recipes. Holiday time is great, but it’s also wonderful to be busy busy with work and home and recipes.

I have some super healthy things coming up this month – think things like Chickweed Chowder and field mushroom and barley bowls! If you have any special requests, pleease let me know. I love hearing from you.

xxx

Driving to Namibia and Back was last modified: September 4th, 2017 by Daniela Klein